For Artists

I sell art through Redbubble and Society6 and they both have their pros and cons. I personally prefer the print quality of Redbubble’s apparel but Society6 really shines with their homewares products. I mean you can get boobs on a shower curtain. The absurdity of that speaks to me on a personal level.

Which is why I was genuinely excited when Society6 launched wallpaper earlier this year. I design a lot of repeating patterns. Wallpaper was my time to SHINE.

Or it would have been. But all my patterns to date don’t tile as a perfect square.

Instead, I’m dealing with this shit:

Note the cropping at the bottom and top of the pattern tile. If I tried to upload that, the resulting wallpaper would look like this:

Groooossssss

The obvious solution is to design patterns so that their tiles are square which I’ll be doing from now on. In the meantime, I’m rejigging my old patterns to fit the new format and it’s a fucking pain in the ass. So I figured what better way to really feel the burn than to document this process for you guys.

You’re welcome.

I’ll be using my Relaxolotl pattern as a guinea pig today because it’s one of my best sellers.

Also, I’m a bourgeois snob who doesn’t like learning new programs so the following is all Adobe Illustrator specific. You can, however, apply a few of the tips and tricks to your own programs and/or processes if you work with something else.

My aim in creating art is to deliver something meticulously heartwarming – sometimes absurd but always optimistic. I like worlds where the girl gets the girl, axolotls can kickflip, and monsters are real but are mostly your bros.